


The Smaller Bonfires

by Any



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Fake Dating, M/M, Miscommunication, More tags to be added, Movie Spoilers, Post-Canon, the fake dating fic y'all were waiting for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-10-25 18:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20728442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Any/pseuds/Any
Summary: When Galo realizes he needs a partner for Promepolis' yearly memorial ball (and someone to flaunt to reporters), he turns to Lio for help. Pretending to date the city's former #1 enemy will surely help cool down the tension between former Burnish and other people that is agitating its streets.Unfortunately for Lio, Galo's never been the best at explaining his plans.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!!!! This is my first Promare fic (and the first fic in this account!) so I'm a little nervous. I love this movie so much I needed to write something about my favourite trope.
> 
> Please keep in mind this fic takes place after the movie, so there's major ending spoilers from the very first chapter. I assume if you're here you're okay with that!

_ “And that concludes our news report! Time for the weather… or is it!?” _

The buzzing of the radio echoed on the Burning Rescue’s dressing room walls. A shrill voice flowed out of it, accompanied by a catchy melody: “Believe It or Don’t” had been a hit with Promepolis’ residents ever since things slowly returned to normalcy.

_ “It’s time for our exclusive report on this city’s most popular residents! Kick it away, Iggy!” _

“Ugh!” Galo grumbled as the hosts rattled on. He kicked off his boots in frustration while reaching for his streetwear ones. After weeks of these so called “journalists” trailing behind and speculating about him, he had had enough of radio shows for a lifetime.

_ “ _ _ ― _ _ which reminds me, what are you planning on wearing for this year’s ball?” _

_ “Right! This edition is an extra special occasion, isn’t it? That night marks the half-year mark since the Burnish disappeared and the Earth was saved!” _

_ “And our favorite fireman and world rescuer will be there too! I can’t wait!” _

There they went again. Galo loved all of his fans, he really did, but his rising popularity had just resulted in nosy journalists trying to find out about every single aspect of his life.

“You’ve been fuming for the past minute over there,” Remi chimed in. He ran his hands on his hair, still wet after a shower. “What’s wrong? You usually like people talking about you.”

“Of course I do! But just listen to this nonsense!”   
_ “ _ _ ― _ _ then there’s the question of who he will take to the ball, isn’t there?” _

_ “Yes! Media has been speculating about who could be Mr. Thymos’ special someone for a while, and the event might be the perfect occasion to get to learn about it.” _

_ “The moment all his fans are looking forward to.” _

_ “I think “dreading” would be more appropriate, wouldn’t you think?” _

Laughter roared from the radio, and Remi blinked. Galo’s growling turned into a full on groan. 

These were the people who had turned his life impossible these last few weeks. He took a while to realize it, but before long journalists were  _ hounding _ him on the streets, be it right after his shift ended or when he was running late for work. He enjoyed engaging them at first, answering the simple questions he could answer without feeling uncomfortable, but soon enough these same people started prying about his personal life  ―his  _ love life _ , of all things―, and for the first time in a while Galo had nothing to give them.

Of course, that only gave them the ammo they needed to become even more persistent. and now here he was: Rushing and going with his bike from and to work because he refused to give information on something he had  _ absolutely _ no interest in.

Galo had finally had enough. “Why does everybody think I need a girlfriend, anyway!?”

Remi shrugged. “It’s a ball. You’re expected to bring someone.” He was getting tired of watching Galo pace around the room so quickly. “You could have done like I did and refuse the offer.”

“I couldn’t do that!” Galo whined. “We’re celebrating our victory, and the Captain said it’d be a nice opportunity to gain new sponsors, somethin’ like that...” He paused for a second. “Who’s he going with, anyway?”

“Lucia.” Remi shook his head. “Don’t look at me like that. They just thought it’d be funny.”

“Why aren’t they bothering  _ him  _ about his love life!? Ugh.”

Galo finally exhausted himself after all the fuming, and sat down on the bench with one hand on his head. At this point he might as well take another shower. “What am I supposed to do? I just want my old life back.”

A loud burst of laughter resounded from the back of the dressing room. Varys peeked from the corner, amused at the current shenanigans. His “slow burn shower care time” was finally over. “Don’t be so dramatic! I’m sure we can get you a date before the ball.”

“That’s not the issue here!” Galo cried. “Seriously…”

“Is this all because of Lio?” Remi asked. “You know… all the privacy.”

He and Varys shared a knowing smile. 

“Huh?” The room fell into silence for a moment. Galo hadn’t been thinking about Lio when he started venting, but in retrospective, Remi’s comment might have hit the mark. Galo always made sure to be discreet about the other boy with the media  _ ― _ no matter if he had been right along him back when they burnt the planet to ashes in order to save it _ ― _ because that’s what Lio wanted and needed. All the ex-Burnish were struggling so hard to fit back into society, Lio especially, that the last thing Galo wanted was for him to get harassed by reporters and make him run back to the ex-Burnish settlement. It had been hard enough to get him to sleep on a bed and not sitting on the floor; Galo didn’t want to waste all that precious progress. He didn’t want to find Lio collapsed from exhaustion after over exerting his body on rebuilding the city ever again.

At the same time, however, it frustrated Galo immensely how his friend took absolutely no credit for what  _ they _ achieved  _ together _ . All the Burnish protected the Earth from its own combustion, and uninvolved people still have the gall to act cold towards them.

“ _ ― _ there’s probably someone out there willing to pretend to be his date for a night. Right?” Remi asked, his sideways glance not seeming too convinced.

Galo blinked in surprise. Remi and Varys were continuing the conversation without him, but what they were saying sent a lightning bolt through his struggling brain. 

The genius. The brilliance. The absolute prodigy. Galo Thymos just came up with the best plan that had ever existed.

“I just got the GREATEST idea.” He declared.

“Uh-oh.” Varys noted.

“That’s never a good sign.” Remi added.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I wanted to say I'm really glad about all the feedback last chapter received! Your comments made me super happy, so thank you all so much for reading.  
Sorry that I took so long with this chapter! I'm actually really slow at writing, but I'm trying my best for these two idiots. Hope you enjoy it!

There were two presences that greeted Galo when he arrived to his apartment’s doorway that evening: The local pizza delivery man, and a faint smell of smoke.

When he waved the man goodbye, unlocked the door and closed it behind him, he wasn’t surprised to find Lio busy setting the table for their impromptu pizza night.

Lio was wearing one of Galo’s oversized hoodies that night. It was one of his favourites, too: bright red, soft and entirely too big for Lio’s lithe frame. The fiery colour contrasted with the boy’s snow pale skin and hair in a way that made him seem ethereal, unreal. Galo gracefully lent it to Lio so he could be warm in the beginning days of them staying together, but it had practically been claimed as his by now. 

“Yo! I’m back.”

“Welcome,” Lio said, his back still turned towards Galo. “You’re early tonight.”

“Yeah!” Galo slipped off his sneakers and approached the table. “Tomorrow’s my free day, so Captain took mercy on us.”

“Good for you.” Lio grabbed the napkins, turning his body away from Galo again. He still hadn’t faced him once since he got home. 

Galo had spent enough time with Lio recognize that behaviour as suspicious. “Pizza again?”

“I thought you liked pizza.” Lio replied, and finally took a seat when he was done placing the small dishes. 

“I do! But we had pizza last time we were together.” Galo quipped, grabbing a chair and sitting down right in front of Lio. “More importantly, why’s it smell like smoke in here?”

Galo’s table was as wide as it could get to fit in a modest apartment in Promepolis, so the distance between them only made this easier. He stared right through Lio, his accusing gaze absolutely certain of what had happened before he’d got home. Lio tried to glare back at first — that was always his first reaction when Galo challenged him— but he didn’t last long before turning his eyes away and sighing. “I… tried cooking again.”

“And?”

“And what?"

“How’d it go?”

Lio frowned at him. “You know exactly how it went,” He grabbed a slice of pizza from the box and put it in his mouth with one hand. With the other he harshly slided the box to Galo from the opposite side of the table. “Just eat your pizza.”

“Hey now,” Galo laughed. “There’s no need to be mad! I told ya I could help you practice if you wanted.” He accepted the pizza Lio practically threw at him, and took a big bite. Man, he loved Inferno Volcano Margherita Megamax.

“You were busy.” Lio looked far away again, in that way Galo didn’t like one bit. “I have nothing else to do here.”

It pained Galo to see Lio so frustrated at resting for one day. It was hard enough to convince him to stop over exerting himself for just one day —volunteer work had no hourly work limits, as far as he knew— to the point where Galo had to ask Lio’s supervisor to send him home on the weekends and not let him sneak back in. Rebuilding a whole city was a hard job, and Galo would prefer if Lio didn’t have an early death from too much hard, physical labour. All of Lio’s ex-Burnish friends were finally with him on something.

They ate in silence for a while, simply focused on not combusting from the spices. Galo glanced up at Lio and noticed him fidgeting in his seat. At first he thought the pizza was too spicy for him— had he finally gotten enough of pretending he didn’t mind it?— but he ruled that out after he realized the peculiar way he was sitting.

“Lio, wasn’t it you that told me it was good manners to have both hands on top of the table while you eat?”

Lio stopped chewing like a deer caught in the headlights. He slowly raised his left arm and placed his hand on the table. 

Still unconvinced, Galo hummed and gently put his hand over Lio’s forearm.

The hiss of pain Lio let out and his sudden lurch from the table confirmed Galo’s theory. 

“You’re hurt!” Galo sprung up and ran to Lio’s side. “Let me see that.”

Lio was in no position to argue, still clutching his arm in pain, and let out another whine when Galo rolled up his sleeve. The outside of half his forearm was as red as the hoodie he was wearing, with obvious swelling closer to the burns. By the state of his skin, Galo could tell his arm had been left like untreated for a while.

“Lio! Why didn’t you put anything on it!?” Galo cried in disbelief.

Lio smirked, unbelievably. “We’re matching now.”

“Oh my god, be quiet!” Galo snapped. “Hang on a sec.”

Galo stormed off to the bathroom in a hurry, where he always kept an emergency kit. As a firefighter, he was proud to keep enough fire burn treating supplies to last him a lifetime.

With his med kit ready, Galo came back, and with a word of warning grabbed Lio and brought him to the couch. The other boy was already used to this; Galo enjoyed carrying him when he needed to —even though most times Lio could have simply walked by himself— and since Lio never complained it had sort of become a habit between them.

Galo spent the next 10 minutes cleaning and applying ointment on Lio’s burn, and then finishing it off with some clean bandages. Lio stayed quiet for most of it, trying to keep a cool face, but failing to contain some yelps of pain when he brushed over more sensitive areas.

Finally, Galo brushed off the sweat from his forehead. “Done. You’re lucky there weren’t blisters or anything.” He rolled Lio’s sleeve back down and put the leftover bandages away. “You really should’ve said something before we started eating…”

“... Thank you.”

Lio said nothing else, as tradition dictated. He simply nodded at Galo and walked back to the dinner table. The unfinished pizza sat in the middle, long cold by now.

In these moments when Lio locked his heart deep inside himself, Galo wanted nothing more than to drag him back out by force. He wanted to let Lio know he understood, that he wouldn’t think badly of him for showing weakness, but his usual ever-tactful tongue had been tied into a messy knot when it came to the other. The last thing he ever wanted was to make Lio retreat further into his own thoughts. All Galo could resort to was to groan in frustration and let his body do the talking.

Galo approached Lio from behind, and before he could sit back down, he rested his chin on his head and wrapped his arms around him. Lio’s hair always smelled really nice. Even through a hard day of work he would often find hints of his shampoo —Galo’s shampoo, lately, he noted— underneath the scent of his sweat. That night it was no different. “Y’dont have to thank me...” Galo muttered. “Man, pizza’s probably cold by now.”

“It wouldn’t be if you hadn’t overreacted—”

“Oh no no,” Galo put a finger over Lio’s mouth. “We’re not doin’ this. You know I like all sorts of pizza.”

“Even cold?” Lio raised his brow, right after putting Galo’s finger away. 

“Especially cold.” Galo nodded.

Lio was apparently not in the mood for harmless bickering, so they two of them simply sit back down and enjoyed the rest of their dinner. As Galo expected, the pizza was still delicious. The mood had noticeably lightened too; one of Galo’s lame jokes had even drawn a soft smile and a scoff from Lio’s usually neutral expression, which was a tall order for most people. It was the perfect time to bring up what Galo had been mulling over all evening.

“Y’know, Lio…” Galo swallowed.

“Hm?” Lio’s smile disappeared, in favour of concern in his eyes. The way worry for him showed in his face made Galo’s heart do a little jump. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Galo started, scratching his head. “I was just wonderin’... Since you pretty much already live with me and all… Uh...” 

Seeing Galo at a loss of words was such an unusual occurrence, the mere sight of it made Lio sweat. “What?”

“So today when I was finishing up at work I thought,” Galo swallowed again. “Why don’t we just  _ date _ ?”

“Wh—”

“D-Don’t misunderstand!” Galo sputtered. “You know about that annual Promepolis ball coming up? Well, I need! A date! So, I just thought,  _ Lio’s right there _ !”

Lio’s absolute silence was definitely not a good sign, but Galo’s firefighting spirit would never falter. “I just think that if you came with me it could do a lot of good! You know, cause of—” 

“You want… to date me?” Lio interrupted Galo, eyes wide in disbelief.

“Yeah!” Galo exclaimed. “I mean, you don’t have to, but it’d help me out a lot and everything...” He scratched his head again.

This idea seemed more stupid the more he explained it to Lio. The other boy probably had more important things to do than pretend to be his boyfriend, Galo thought, like rebuilding Promepolis, for example, or dealing with leading all the former Burnish to a new life, and—

“Fine.”

“Uh, what?” Galo blinked. 

“I said fine,” Lio lowered his gaze, looking sheepish, for some reason. “Don’t make me repeat it.”

“You’d—” Lio’s approval finally dawned on Galo, making his eyes light up like torches. “You’d do this for me!?” Before he could contain his excitement, Galo jumped out of his seat to embrace Lio in a tight hug again, this time in genuine gratitude. “Thank you so much, Lio! You’re literally saving my life here.”

Lio could not say much from his position, his face buried deep in Galo’s chest, but the way he returned the hug on his own seemed to confirm he accepted Galo’s feelings.

The hug went on for another while, only pausing with Lio popping his head up to take a deep breath. Galo smiled down at him: everything was going to be great! After getting the awkward part out of the way, pretending to be all lovey-dovey wouldn’t prove to be hard. Galo had to throw all modesty away for this one: he was great at acting! And Lio’s permanent poker face was impenetrable for anyone who didn’t actually know him.

Lio refused to look at Galo, opting to fiddle on the spot and stare at the wall instead. “I’ve… I’ve never dated anyone before,” Lio sighed, his voice lacking its usual confidence. “Are you sure about this?”

“Of course!” Galo clamoured, patting Lio’s head with conviction to reassure him. “I’ll make sure everythin’ works out. You don’t have to worry about anything.”

And even though Lio didn’t seem too convinced, it was what Galo genuinely believed. The urge to shout to the heavens his arrangement was really huge right then —he couldn’t  _ wait  _ to finally have an answer for those annoying reporters, and he also couldn’t wait to leave them speechless about his answer— but Lio’s fluffy hair and the unusual warmth of his body kept his head cool and grounded.

Later that evening, when they cleaned up the small table and got ready for bed, Lio entered Galo’s crammed bedroom with his pillow in hand. It wouldn’t be the first time they slept together —Galo’s bed was big enough for two, which was impressive in such a small apartment— but Lio’s hesitation at his doorsill made Galo wonder.

“You feeling cold again?” Galo asked. He tapped the side of the bed next to him to invite him in.

“... I guess.” Lio finally stepped in.

Galo had been the first one to suggest they share a bed when he noticed Lio shivering under 3 blankets on the sofa. He’d found it hard to believe at first, but it wasn’t hard to guess what was making Lio feel so cold. The Promare who were keeping his body alive — _ warm _ , Galo corrected himself— had left the Earth and the humans they inhabited. From what he could infer from Lio’s actions, learning to be human again was incredibly challenging, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. So Galo was always eager to make it easier for Lio. Lending his body warmth to keep his soul aflame was nothing in comparison to what he must have been feeling.

Lio still not getting closer and lying down in bed was odd, which led Galo to believe he was still unsure about their plan. “You nervous?” He asked. “There’s no need to be.”

Lio didn’t reply, opting to finally lie down instead. Galo plopped down next to him, and turned his body in Lio’s direction. “I’m really happy you said yes, y’know.”

It looked like the other boy wasn’t in the mood for a lot of talk. He crawled inside the bed and turned his back to Galo, mumbling something unintelligible at the wall.

“What was that?”

“...’m happy too.” 

Galo laughed when he heard that. It was a sort of weird thing to say about doing someone a favour, but then again, Lio was one of the most weird-exceptional people he knew, so he was happy about it. “Man… You don’t gotta be so nice about it! You’re gonna make me feel like I owe you my soul at the end of this whole thing.”

Lio called him an idiot under his breath, but Galo heard the smile on his face and he knew he had nothing to worry about. He turned off the lights and finally got into bed, and when he hugged Lio from behind, he could have sworn he felt his body unusually warmer than other nights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Talk promare to me on [Twitter @Any193](https://twitter.com/Any193)!!


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